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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24915328">Operation: Magpie</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuddlyStarfish/pseuds/CuddlyStarfish'>CuddlyStarfish</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Renegades - Marissa Meyer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:23:07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,313</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24915328</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CuddlyStarfish/pseuds/CuddlyStarfish</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Magpie learns her birth name and that Nova is her sister. Starts directly after the epilogue of Supernova.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Adrian/Nova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>30</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Maggie looked at the rundown building with disdain, fingering the old bullet in her pocket. The building didn’t look like much, with crumbling walls, broken windows, and a door that was off its hinges.<br/>She shouldered the door out of the way and continued down the hallway. Occasionally, Maggie looked down at a little slip of paper in her left hand, carrying a single message.<br/>“I found her in apartment 206.”<br/>The owner of her old orphanage, where she had lived before she joined the Renegades, had given her the message that morning, after finding it in the little old blanket that she had been wrapped in when the owner of an apartment building showed up on the orphanage doorway holding her. How the paper had survived that long, she didn’t know. It had been over a decade since then, but Maggie still wondered about her parents, her apartment building, her past. She didn’t even know her real name. The owner of her orphanage had named her Margaret White, but she didn’t know who she had been before that.<br/>She climbed up the stairs and started to count the doors. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… aha! 206! The name beneath the number read in faded letters, “Artino.”<br/>“Artino,” Maggie breathed, “Margaret Artino. Maggie Artino. Not Maggie White. Still… still Magpie.”<br/>She opened the door and peered into the life she had before she had been dropped in an orphanage and forgotten about. Before she survived a bullet. Before her parents had been killed. Before her sister had gone missing. Before she got her powers.<br/>A door to another room was ajar, the bottom of the door breaking the pattern of dust that covered the apartment.<br/>Someone had been there recently.<br/>Maggie reached into her pocket to arm herself but found only the bullet that had given her her powers and a cheap brooch that she had stolen the day before at the Renegades Parade. She cursed under her breath and held her Renegade wristband up to her mouth, ready to call for backup at the first sign of trouble.<br/>She opened the door as quietly as she could and entered the room. Someone was kneeling on the floor beside an old crib. Maggie couldn’t see her face.<br/>“A squatter, maybe?” Maggie thought, “I wonder how long she’s been living here. I wonder if she knows what happened here.”<br/>“It’s okay, Adrian,” the person said, and Maggie suddenly recognized her as Nova, alias Insomnia, ex-Anarchist Nightmare, and a person Maggie loathed. Maggie felt anger flare deep in her soul at the sight of the over-glorified “hero.” Nova continued, “I’m okay. I’m fine, Adrian, seriously. You didn’t have to come here.”<br/>“What are you doing here?” Maggie spat.<br/>Nova spun around,  quickly wiping tears from her eyes, “Can’t a girl have an hour alone?”<br/>“In an abandoned apartment building where people were murdered a decade ago?” Maggie saw Nova flinch, “Not so much. What are you doing here? What do you want with this old apartment?”<br/>Nova scowled, “That’s none of your business, Magpie. Just leave me alone!”<br/>Maggie crossed her arms over her chest. “I gave you that stupid bracelet back, so you owe me. Why did you change out the stone in that anyways? It was worth so much more before.”<br/>Nova blinked, processing what Maggie said. Then her scowl returned. “First of all, you refused to give me my bracelet back. I had to take it from you. Second, I wouldn’t owe you anything even if you had given it willingly. Third, I didn’t change the stone. It just… broke, I guess. It’s complicated. Lots of stuff with my dad a decade ago, Ace Anarchy’s helmet, Max stealing the powers of everyone in the world, the Supernova…” Nova waved her hand like it wasn’t important, “So why are you here?”<br/>Maggie shoved the slip of paper in her face. “I was found here, in this apartment. This is where my family lived. I want to learn more about them.”<br/>Nova laughed, then turned it into a cough. “Oh. You’re not joking.”<br/>“Why would I be joking?”<br/>“Because… well, this was my apartment. If you were found here, then your family must have lived here after the Roaches… after Uncle Ace sent someone to kill my family.<br/>“Well, I was about a year old and I’m fourteen now, so… you do the math,” Maggie shrugged, glaring.<br/>Nova counted something in her head. Her eyes grew to the size of small plates. She looked from Maggie to the crib and back to Maggie. She whispered, “Evie…? But… that’s impossible…”<br/>“Why are we whispering?” Maggie mockingly stage-whispered.<br/>Nova shook her head. “Nevermind. It’s impossible. You want to learn more about your family, huh? Why not try a blood test?”<br/>“Too expensive. When you grow up in an orphanage, you learn not to spend money when you don’t have to.”<br/>Nova raised an eyebrow. “You’re a Renegade. You work for the government. If you ask, they’ll probably do it for free.”<br/>“Yeah, for you,” Maggie sat down, hugging her knees to her body, and scowled, “but for the rest of us, who aren’t lucky enough to be dating one of the Everheart boys or put on a pedestal by the council? Not so much. Everyone has powers, remember? They can’t just give blood tests away for free. They don’t have enough healers for that. Besides, being a Renegade… everyone seems to be a Renegade or a vigilante. It’s not special.”<br/>“Well… you’re special.”<br/>Maggie raised a skeptical eyebrow.<br/>“I’m serious!” Nova threw her hands into the air in exasperation, “If you want to learn more about your family, I’ll take you to the med wing at Renegade HQ right now and you’ll learn who your parents were. I’ll pay for it. Once we know their names, we can track them down, research them, learn more about them.” She stood up and held out her hand to pull Maggie up from the ground.<br/>Maggie blinked at her, then scoffed. “We? You want to help? Why would you do that? What do you gain from helping me? Are you trying to distract me so that your anarchist friends can destroy the place or something?”<br/>Nova shook her head. If the insult affected her, she didn’t show it. “I have a hypothesis, and that can only be proved with scientific data. It might not come to anything, but I want to find out. Let’s go!<br/>Maggie rolled her eyes. She ignored Nova’s hand and used the wall to stand up. “Fine. Let’s go.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Magpie</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Thank you for waiting so patiently,” the healer that had taken Maggie’s blood re-entered the room where Maggie was waiting, a clipboard in his hands. “We ran the tests and found the names of your parents.”<br/>Maggie jumped to her feet, surprising even herself. She hadn’t realized just how much she wanted to learn who her parents were. Sure, she had always wondered who she was and if she had any family, but she hadn’t given much thought to who the dead members of her family were. If they were dead, they couldn’t find her at the orphanage and take her away. She had the bullet from the night they died and she knew that they were dead. That was it.<br/>When the healer didn’t say anything, Maggie prompted, “So, who are they?”<br/>“David and Tala Artino. They have another daughter, too-”<br/>“Missing, I know. But they were Artinos. That was their apartment!”<br/>“Well, Magpie, not exactly miss-”<br/>“Thanks!” Maggie threw the door open and bolted to the waiting room where Nova was waiting in an uncomfortable-looking chair.<br/>Nova looked up as she entered. “What’s up with that look? Are you an Everheart or something? Is that why you look so smug?”<br/>Maggie shook her head. “Because I was right! My family did live in that apartment. It said so on the sign!”<br/>“What do you mean?” <br/>With a smirk, Maggie proudly declared, “My parents are David and Tala Artino!”<br/>Nova’s jaw dropped. “But… it’s not… that’s not possible… Evie?”<br/>“Why would it be impossible? They had two daughters, after all. Apparently one of them survived the bullet!” Maggie pulled the bullet out of her pocket.<br/>Nova gasped. Her eyes grew wide, then she shut them tight as if to block something out. She started shaking and tears ran down her cheeks. A healer ran to her, but she shook her head and regained her composure.<br/>Maggie pulled away in surprise, pocketing her little treasure. “What was that?”<br/>“Nothing,” Nova took a few deep breaths, “My family was shot when I was little and… I can still remember the sounds. Your bullet… it reminded me of them. Of… my little sister. And I’m not surprised that one of the Artino girls survived. I’m more surprised that both of them did. I always thought the younger one… she was just a baby… I never imagined-”<br/>“-that she would be me? Do you know my sister? Who is she? Where is she? Oh! She’s not an anarchist, is she?”<br/>“Anarchists don’t exist anymore,” Nova reminded her, “but, yes, she was.”<br/>Maggie’s face fell. “Oh.”<br/>“Don’t look so disappointed,” Nova shifted uncomfortably, “She switched sides before the Supernova. She’s… um… she’s not that bad. She’s pretty nice, actually. I think so, anyway.”<br/>Maggie crossed her arms over her chest, “So who is she? Does she remember our parents? Does she remember my birth name? I was in that orphanage for years and she never came for me, not even after the Supernova. Why didn’t she come?”<br/>Nova flinched. “She thought you were dead.”<br/>“But I wasn’t! I needed her! Who is she?”<br/>Nova took a deep breath and looked into Maggie’s eyes. “She’s me, Evie. I’m your sister. I thought I lost you that night. My little Evie. I’m Nova Artino.”<br/>“What?” Maggie stepped back as if she had been slapped. Her voice was quiet and confused, her anger giving way to… not betrayal. Maybe shock, or surprise. She wasn’t sure. Nova reached out to touch her, comfort her, hold her, but Maggie pushed her away. “Don’t. You don’t get to be sympathetic. You left me. You didn’t come. I don’t care if we’re related by blood. You’re not my sister.”<br/>“I didn’t leave you. Uncle Ace told me you were dead. I heard the gunshot. I thought it was true. Please, Evie. If I knew you were alive, I would have done anything to get you back!”<br/>“Stop calling me Evie!” Maggie exploded. “I’m not your sister and you aren’t mine! I don’t have a sister!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Nova</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Nova spent the next few days in a daze. She couldn’t stop smiling. On patrol, her usual no-nonsense attitude was gone. She was even willing to let a small-time drug thief go free with only the promise that it wouldn’t happen again.<br/>Beside her, Oscar laughed, “Guys, don’t freak out, but I think we have another imposter on our hands. There’s no way that that’s our Nova.”<br/>Nova hit his shoulder. “Can’t I just be happy?”<br/>“Not really, no.”<br/>Nova smacked him again.<br/>“He’s right though. You’re acting weird. What happened?” Danna asked, her swarm of butterflies converging to form her body.<br/>Adrian and Ruby put down the bags they had taken away from the thief and joined that group.<br/>“We know it has something to do with Magpie,” Ruby nudged her, “Every time you see her, your face lights up, and then you look really worried and confused and turn away.”<br/>“I do?” Nova shifted, “I didn’t realize I was that…”<br/>“Obvious?” Oscar finished.<br/>Ruby was the one to smack him that time.<br/>“I was going to say ‘transparent,’” Nova shrugged, “but ‘obvious’ works.”<br/>Adrian casually draped his arm over her shoulder, sending butterflies into her stomach. They had been dating for over a year, and she still got nervous whenever he touched her. Maybe it was because it was so easy for her to use her power on him, to put him into a deep slumber. Maybe it was just plain attraction. Maybe it was both.<br/>“Give her a break,” Adrian laughed, “She’ll tell you if she wants to, but you don’t have to push her.”<br/>Nova smiled, “Thanks, Adrian, but it’s fine. I want to tell you. I told you guys about my little sister, didn’t I? Evie?”<br/>“Yeah?”<br/>“She died with the rest of my family when I was little, right?”<br/>“Yeah?”<br/>“Wrong!” Nova gleefully declared, “She’s alive! She survived the bullet and grew up in an orphanage, right here in Galton City!”<br/>“Really?”<br/>“No way!”<br/>“That’s amazing!”<br/>“Congratulations!”<br/>Nova grinned from ear to ear.<br/>“So how did you figure it out?” Danna asked, “What does Magpie have to do with it? Did she help you or something?”<br/>Nova’s face fell. “That’s the only problem. Magpie is Evie.”<br/>Ruby scrunched up her forehead. “How is that a problem? You found your sister. Better yet, she’s a Renegade! She works with you!”<br/>“Yeah, but she hates me.”<br/>Adrian fiddled with his marker. “Does she know? Does she know that you two are family? Does she know that she has a family?”<br/>“Yeah, and she hates me more because of it,” Nova sighed, “She says I should have come to get her in the orphanage. Maybe I should have looked harder, even though I thought she was dead.”<br/>“That doesn’t make much sense.”<br/>“Still!”<br/>“It’s okay!” Ruby put her hand on Nova’s shoulder, “We’ll find a way to get her to like you. You’ll see!”<br/>“I’m sure she’ll see reason,” Danna nodded.<br/>Oscar pumped the air with his fist. “Alright! A team mission! Operation Get-Magpie-to-like-Nova is underway!”<br/>The group laughed.<br/>“Well, that’s a mouthful,” Nova laughed and held out her fist for Oscar to bump.<br/>Danna shared a look with Nova and Ruby, then suggested, “How about just Operation: Magpie?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Hi! This is my first time posting on AO3. This is a pretty short fanfic, but if you guys like it I could continue it. Thanks for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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